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Friday, June 12, 2009

Last night I couldn't find the words to start the post because my mind was blown over watching the Yankees blow another game to the Sox. Tonight, I'm having the same problem but this time it's a good thing. I can't believe that the Yankees won on of all things, a dropped pop up. Unreal. I'd hate to be Luis Castillo right about now. I got a text from my friend Dan the Mets fan (not be confused with Dan the Yankees fan) that said "I would cut Castillo if I was in charge." That was a brutal play. It is probably the worst play I've ever seen. Again, unreal. Here are some of the instant reactions of some of my fellow Yankee bloggers, all done via Twitter:

I tweeted "HOLY SH*T" and "ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME?!?!?!" and "That was insane in the membrane."

The best tweet of the night also came courtesy of River Ave Blues: "Unsung hero = Mark Teixeira for just putting his head down and running hard on a routine pop up." That my friends is the absolute truth. Kids take note: that is why you run hard all the time. You never know what's going to happen. Teixeira better be tonight's recipient of the WWE belt. That was clutch. And I can't decide if it's sad or not that the Yankees reacted like they did in terms of rushing A-Rod. He should get absolutely no credit for that. At least no pies were involved.

That improbable ending pretty much made me forget the rest of the game. It made me forget that Joba Chamberlain was absolutely horrendous, issuing 5 walks and hitting 2 people in 4 innings of work. It made me forget that no matter what move Joe Girardi makes, it backfires. It made me forget that Mo, yet again, wasn't the Mo we all know and love. It made me forget that Nick Swisher had another fielding blunder. That makes 4 in the last 3 days (2 defensive miscues and 2 baserunning blunders). OK, maybe I didn't forget those things but it makes the negative a lot easier to swallow.

I still can't believe how that came ended. I get that everyone who has ever played the great game of baseball has dropped a pop-up at some point, but I have to think that it's rarely ended the game, especially at the major league level. The best part of the ending, besides the Yankees winning of course, was watching K-Rod look all mopey and sad. I was so not looking forward to seeing him pump his fists and/or point to the heavens. Besides Jonathan Papelbon, there's no reliever I dislike more the K-Rod. It gives me great joy knowing that he gets knocked with a blown save, even though it wasn't his fault.

Tomorrow's game should be interesting as the Yankees are going up against Fernando Nieve, who they've never faced before. The Yanks always seem to struggle against guys they're seeing for the first time. It's amazing how often they struggle. It happens way too often and it makes me think that there's an underlying reason for it. The only thing I can think of is poor scouting. I'm not a major league hitting coach, nor do I pretend to be, but I'd have to think that part of their job is to know what to expect from opposing pitchers and to make sure that his hitters are prepared for it. Maybe Kevin Long struggles in that department. I don't know. Andy Pettitte takes the ball for the Yanks and he really needs a good, long outing. Andy's had 2 so-so outings in a row and with Joba only going 4 tonight, we need to see some length from Andy. He needs to do anything he can do to keep the ball out of the bullpen's hands. A win would be huge because it guarantees a series win and it would mean less pressure on the team for Sunday's game against Johan Santana.